The Meaning Behind “Stray Cat Strut”: They Really Were Getting Their Dinner from a Garbage Can

The Stray Cats‘ Brian Setzer shared a revelation with Andy Peebles of the BBC in a 1981 interview: “‘Stray Cat Strut,’ I wrote that in three or four minutes, you know?”

The guitar figure at the beginning of “Stray Cat Strut” is one of the strongest declarations of rebellion in a pop song ever. Popular music in the early ’80s consisted of The Cars, Men at Work, and Van Halen. Here come three guys with minimal instrumentation harkening back to their parents’ generation, singing about hot rods and covering dawn-of-rock songs from more than two decades earlier.

Setzer’s guitar sound owed more to Elvis Presley’s Scotty Moore or Gene Vincent’s Cliff Gallup than to Robin Trower or Edward Van Halen. The big snare drum sound and undeniable upright string bass create a quick throwback intro before Setzer’s slurring Gretsch riff jumps out of the song. Taken from the Chuck Berry train of thought, the riff and later solos set the tune apart—way apart—from the other songs occupying the airwaves in 1982. 

The trio started playing gigs around their hometown of Massapequa on Long Island in New York, employing different names for different clubs. Tom Cats one night, Wild Cats the next. 

Setzer credited the television cartoon Top Cat as an inspiration for the song “Stray Cat Strut.” He found a guitar for sale in a local paper. It was just like Eddie Cochran’s, an orange Gretsch Chet Atkins 6120, which Setzer modified with stickers and monopoly dice. One of the first stickers added was an arched-back cat, which inspired the first line of the new song.

Black and orange stray cat sittin’ on a fence
Ain’t got enough dough to pay the rent
I’m flat broke, but I don’t care
I strut right by with my tail in the air

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“I came up with ‘Stray Cat Strut’ back in our garage in Long Island when I was 18,” Setzer told The Guardian, “I wanted something slower than our other songs. It’s about us three guys and the lives we were living. At that point, we were still called the Tomcats, but it became “stray” when we went to London because we had wandered.”

Stray cat strut, I’m a ladies cat
I’m a feline Casanova, hey man, that’s that
Get a shoe thrown at me from a mean old man
Get my dinner from a garbage can
Meow
Yeah, don’t cross my path

The descending chord pattern had been used in other songs in the past; “Pink Pedal Pushers” by Carl Perkins, “Lonely Travelin’” by Lonesome Lee, and “Icky Poo” by The Nomads all have similar uses of the chords used in “Stray Cat Strut.” But what sets the Cats version apart is the guitar solo and the inversion of the chord figure. Jazz and swing elements mixed in with the simple three-chord formula of early rock ‘n’ roll take the song to new territories.

I don’t bother chasing mice around
I slink down the alley, looking for a fight
Howling to the moonlight on a hot summer night
Singin’ the blues while the lady cats cry
“Wild stray cat, you’re a real gone guy
I wish I could be as carefree and wild
But I got cat class and I got cat style”

Setzer continued, “I played the guitar solo out of thin air, on the spot, probably thinking: ‘I wanna do something that will bend your ear, something unexpected.’ It’s crazy that it’s become one of the most famous solos ever. It must have taken me 30 seconds.”

Some History

Setzer first played guitar in a New Wave band with his brother Gary on drums as early as 1978 under the name Bloodless Pharaohs. They built up a following as they played clubs around the area, but Brian Setzer was leaning in another direction. He was discovering the music of the 1950s: Gene Vincent, Eddie Cochran, Janis Martin, and Carl Perkins. He urged his brother to play drums in a stripped-down rockabilly band. 

As brothers do, eventually they butted heads, and the guitarist/singer continued alone. As he played solo, a skinny guy with greased hair and a cowboy shirt started showing up around. They started talking during a break, and the newcomer asked if Setzer was looking for a drummer. Slim Jim Phantom had his drums in the car, in fact, and he joined the band. His childhood friend, Lee Rocker, was enlisted on standup bass, and the trio was complete. As they played, they realized they were onto something. A friend pointed them in the direction of London, England, and they set out on an adventure overseas. 

As they looked for gigs, the band started to attract music fans who were anxious to see American rock ‘n’ roll performed by a young band. And some of the people the Cats were attracting over there were well-known musicians. 

Phantom told The Guardian, “The original group of people that came to see us included Chrissie Hynde, Joe Strummer, Lemmy, and Glen Matlock—a gang of all the hipsters in London. Once the music press started writing about us, everything happened like wildfire.”

At one point, The Rolling Stones wanted to sign the trio to their record label. Phantom wrote in his book, A Stray Cat Struts, “I don’t know if Mick and Keith would have been able to produce the Stray Cats record as had been discussed. It seemed hard for the two of them to get to the same place at the same time, and the whole thing was moving very slowly. We eventually signed with Arista Records with Dave Edmunds producing.”

“Stray Cat Strut”‘” was the band’s third single released off their debut album in the U.K.; it reached No. 11 on the British charts. The following year, it was their first single released in the U.S., and it became a minor phenomenon, going all the way to No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100.

The Stray Cats had other hits, but “Stray Cat Strut” has become the one most closely identified with the little ’50s-style American rock ‘n’ roll band from Long Island, by way of London, England.

Photo by Jason Kempin/WireImage